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Persecution of members of theRastafari movement, anAbrahamic religion founded inJamaica in the early 1930s amongAfro-Jamaican communities, has been fairly continuous throughout the religion's development. Current issues relate to theirspiritual use ofcannabis and discrimination related to spiritual hair styles, mainlydreadlocks.
There was a growing grassroots movement in Jamaica that combinedEthiopianism, a belief that black people in the new world will be rescued by God as his chosen people, with faith healing and revival churches. Laws like the Obeah Act of 1898, which made it Illegal to use or pretend to use supernatural powers or knowledge,[1] and the Medical Law of 1908, which created a council to regulate medical practice in Jamaica,[2] were used to disrupt these movements and redirect medical and religious authority back to the state. One of the most prominent figures of this period wasAlexander Bedward, a faith healer and self-proclaimed profit. He was eventually locked up in a asylum for his religious claims.[3]
The first Rastafari to appear in a court wasLeonard Howell in Jamaica in 1934 who was charged with sedition for refusing to acceptGeorge V of the United Kingdom as his King, instead insisting that he was only loyal toHaile Selassie and theEthiopian Empire. He was found guilty and sentenced to several years in prison.[4]
By the 1950s, Rastafari's message of pride and unity had unnerved the ruling class of Jamaica. In 1954, the Pinnacle commune was destroyed by Jamaican authorities.[citation needed]
In 1963, following a violent confrontation between Rastafarians and Jamaican police forces at a gas station, the Jamaican government issued the police and military an order to "bring in all Rastas, dead or alive", resulting in mass arrests, with many of those arrested tortured or killed in what would be known as theCoral Gardens incident.[5]
Attitudes began to change whenHaile Selassie I visited Jamaica in April 1966.[citation needed]
According to many Rastas, theillegality of cannabis in many nations is evidence of persecution of Rastafari. They are not surprised that it is illegal, seeing it as a powerful substance that opens people's minds to the truth – something the Babylon system, they reason, clearly does not want.[6] They contrast it to alcohol and other drugs, which they feel destroy the mind.[7]
In 1998,Attorney General of the United StatesJanet Reno gave a legal opinion[8] that Rastafari do not have the religious right to smoke marijuana in violation of the United States'drug laws. The position is the same in the United Kingdom, where, in the Court of Appeal case ofR v Taylor,[9] it was held that the UK's prohibition on cannabis use did not contravene the right to freedom of religion conferred under theEuropean Convention on Human Rights.[citation needed]
On January 2, 1991, at an international airport in his homeland ofGuam, Ras Iyah Ben Makahna (Benny Guerrero) was arrested for possession and importation of marijuana and seeds. He was charged with importation of a controlled substance. The case was heard by the US 9th Circuit Court November 2001, and in May 2002 the court had decided that the practice of Rastafari sanctions the smoking of marijuana, but nowhere does the religion sanction the importation of marijuana. Guerrero's lawyer Graham Boyd pointed out that the court's ruling was "equivalent to saying wine is a necessary sacrament for some Christians but you have to grow your own grapes."[10]
In July 2008, however, theItalian Supreme Court ruled that Rastafari may be allowed to possess greater amounts of cannabis legally, owing to its use by them as a sacrament.[11]
In 2009, Rasta Doug Darrell was arrested after a National Guard helicopter flying over hisNew Hampshire home found he was growing 15 marijuana plants in his backyard. In a subsequent trial in September 2012, Darrell was found "not guilty" by twelve jurors exercising the right ofjury nullification.[12]
Sacramental use of cannabis in celebration of the Rastafari faith became legal in Jamaica on April 15, 2015.
A viral video posted in 2018, showed a high school wrestler, Andrew Johnson, having his dread locks cut in order to compete in a wrestling match. This gained national attention and began a civil rights investigation into the referee, Alan Maloney, who had been previously accused of using racial slurs against a black referee.[13]
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